Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Green Tomato Chocolate Cake

I always have mixed feelings when it comes to cleaning out the vegetable garden at the end of the season. On the one hand, I do get to a point where I've tired of all the work that goes into gardening. On the other hand, it's difficult to bid farewell to the fresh produce that has been growing right in my backyard for the past five months. Like many other gardeners, I do my best to save the last of the summer bounty by harvesting every possible vegetable before we get a hard freeze. Inevitably, that means I end up with a pile of green tomatoes. This year, we had some real lookers.Inevitably, some of the tomatoes will end up sliced, covered in cornmeal, and fried up in a skillet. But, others... well, they end up as chocolate cake. Yes, folks. Green tomatoes add a little special something to the dessert table. But, first you've got to puree them up a bit. And then, you want to get together some other key ingredients -- some flour (some of that great locally milled organic ww pastry flour, in fact), sugar, a couple of eggs, some baking chocolate, a bit of butter, and a nice dose of beer. And before you get on my case about how beer seems to make its way into EVERYTHING at Burp! these days... may I reming you that I live in Milwaukee, WI, one of the brewing capitals of the world. :) You'll want to trust me when I tell you that, between the beer and the tomatoes, this recipe really does make up one of the best chocolate cake recipes you've ever had. And here's a sample --right before we pop it into the oven. Once you get that cake tester to come out clean, you've got a cake that's just screaming to be layered with a bit of chocolate ganache frosting. So, that's exactly what I did. And what do you know? A bit of ganache and some white chocolate drizzle makes it into one looker of a cake. And you haven't even tasted it yet! This isn't a fudgy flourless chocolate torte. Or a sexy chocolate-filled molten cake. Or a rum-soaked diva of a cake. This recipe makes a fine old-fashioned cake. The sort of cake that your grandmother used to make. This cake is quite happily accompanied by a bit of vanilla icecream, but it feels truly at home with a nice tall glass of ice-cold milk. I'm just sayin'.

I have to go with Peter that this cake is pretty bizarre, but heck, why not play with ingredients? I think it looks beautiful.

I'm reminded of tomato soup cake. My mother said years ago every bride got a recipe for a tomato soup cake at her shower. Perhaps it will be making a comeback after people see chocolate green tomato cake.

Jenn - I don't remember exactly when/where I stumbled onto this recipe. I've been making it for years... but, I'm a big fan of zucchini bread & beet cake, so I think that helped me to make the leap. How bad could it be, after all?? :)

I was surprised by the title and I love your cake.I now remember a friend's mum (way back when we were in school) who used to amke this nice red tomato cake, which we used fight over.:)So I'm sure this one's lovely too. Certainly looks gorgeous.

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